I had the pleasure of meeting Nate & Nate at the latest Chantilly gun show. They had a small booth (big sign) about in the center of the show and were selling their home made IWB holsters. At the time I was wearing my (empty) Crossbreed Supertuck. Nate Johnson did a great job of showing me around their regular and their "tuck" holsters. I've been wearing the regular, full sized holster since then.
The holster components are all top notch - nicely finished black leather face and a top grade suede backing sandwich 3mm of neoprene, bound by heavy duty nylon around the edge. The firearm is retained by a dense, herringbone elastic “band.” The stainless steel, powered coated clip is attached to the retention band.
I’ve been wearing the Supertuck for over a year and my biggest complaint is that it slides WAY too easily. The rough leather simply could not grip microfiber (like Under Armour) or bare skin. To try and counter this I glued a jar lid gripper onto the back. That alleviated the issue a bit, but not completely. I tested the N82T with a cotton t-shirt, a microfiber Under Armour shirt & bare skin. They got 2/3 of it solved. There was still a lot of slide on a the Under Armour shirt. However, against the cotton T it gripped like spider webs. Against bare skin it was VERY comfortable - minimal slide, cool & dry. It appeared to bear the weight of my Sig P226 (15 rounds loaded) better than the Supertuck and it was absolutely silent.
The model I purchased is the “Full size” and it fits the Sig perfectly:
Now, they also make full sized slim & revolver models, but I thought I’d try my holster out with a full sized .45:
And a “revolver”:
(OK – a Crossman CO2 “revolver” but it’s a good demo).
The much slimmer framed .45 fit just fine, but the retention was a bit loose – this is not a concern while the holster is worn as the belt will provide more holding power. However, it would work very, very well. The revolver – not so much. As you can see the trigger is exposed and the grip hangs over the backing. So, buying the dedicated revolver holster is a must if you carry a wheel gun.
Drawing from the holster is very nice. The band does NOT snag on the front sight and offers just enough resistance that you’re not going to flip the gun forward. I drew with the clip inside the belt, outside the belt (I used both a thick, leather gun belt & a BDU belt) and without a belt. The combination of the suede leather backing & clip did well. I came closest to pulling the holster when wearing BDUs and no belt.
Re-holstering the weapon, well, that’s an adventure. N82 claims that over time the band will form to the gun, but I am skeptical – we’ll see. This is something the Nates readily point out on their site.
Last – because it has a single clip (already canting the gun forward) I found the whole rig slowly tilting even more forward. The only way I found to counter this is to install the holster with the clip aft of a belt loop and the belt on top of the clip.
The holster is offered in a standard model for $40 and a “tuck” model with S-clips (like the Supertuck) for $60.
To summarize:
PROs: VERY comfortable. The neoprene completely protects you from all the pointy bits on your gun and protects the gun from any sweat that might seep through. You do not need a separate holster for each model gun. Fantastic retention of the gun, minimal sliding of the holster. Very fast delivery even though they are made in a small shop.
CONS: Re-holstering is a pain. The whole thing tends to tilt forward while walking. Because the gun is held so snugly against the holster, drawing practice is a MUST.
Four solid stars out of five.